I have quite a few turquoise beads that have cracks like the one here. Should these be repaired or left as they are? What method can be used?
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Not much you can really do. You could put some glue in the cracks and hope for the best.
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Any type of glue? A jewelers adhesive maybe?
We use a duco cement for lots of things.
Back in the day, a very long time ago, standard procedure for a cracked stone that couldn’t be immediately matched was to simply overlay a ribbon of silver over the crack and call it a day.
If we could find a matching stone close enough to the color and matrix, we’d cut that stone to fit the bezel, pull the broken stone out, and replace it.
One of the solutions we came up with for clients who demanded an exact match and visual restoration of a damaged or missing stone was to glue the stone back together with epoxy or cyanoacrylate adhesive, and have a fine artist literally overpaint the cracked area with acrylics to match the stone color and matrix.
Naturally, the client was always aware of and approved of the restoration work being done, and we only offered this option when an absolute match could not be found, and the look of the original piece had to be 100%.
If the setting is a single stone, its always best to replace it with a natural stone of the same quality,
If the piece requires the type of restoration described above, a detailed description of any restoration work performed should be archived with the piece or collection so that future inheritors or buyers are fully informed,
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